SCANDAL Recap: All Hell Breaks Loose

Do you ever go to talk about something you just saw and you have no words? Like you can’t form a complete thought because what you watched is so crazy you don’t know what to even think? Well that’s where I am right now.
I do have one thing to say though; Shonda Rhimes is an emotional terrorist.

So, back in the day, Billy Chambers bribed Charlie into not killing him. Something I wasn’t even sure was possible, Charlie is getting soft in his old age. This however explains how Billy is still able to be running around and mucking about with Rosen in the lives of everyone I wait every week to watch.

Meanwhile the Defiant ones get the band back together to discuss what Billy being the mole with Defiance info means. It’s not a pretty meeting – you thought they fought before? Thank the Lord Fitz shows up, he is in the know after all and brings them to order. “This has gone far enough.” says Fitz. Of course Hollis wants to kill Billy Chambers but Olivia says it isn’t about Billy; it is about the Cytron card. They get that and Billy has nothing.

Olivia and Fitz are left in the White House kitchen after the meeting. Fitz goes to make a move but she steps away. She is happy that he is going to run for office again, she really never wanted anything other than Fitz to be President but now she has to wait another four years for him. Fitz has other plans, “I’m running, I’m winning, we’re getting married and you are moving into the White House with me.” Olivia the fixer is appalled by this even if Olivia the mistress is pleased. Fitz reminders she is always saying she is the best; well here is her chance to prove it. Fix it. Make his plan possible. Fitz makes his move again and this time she doesn’t stop him.

Rowan (Jakes Boss) and Jake are meeting regarding Olivia. Rowan wants Jake to bring Olivia in for a meeting. Jake is less than okay with this but he is given a subtle threat/ultimatum to make it happen.

Olivia gets to the office to tell her Gladiators their priority is to get the Cytron card back and find out what Billy’s game is. Olivia thinks Billy is working with Reston, the Governor. Quinn aka Baby Huck manages to hack into the across the street security cameras that are conveniently pointing at Reston’s front door in order to find Billy leaving Reston’s house earlier in the week. Rosen overhears this and makes a call, “They are on to you.”

Cyrus is in the park meeting with Rowan, Rowan wants Cyrus to leak the Jake/Olivia sex tape to Fitz. The stress of this coupled with Olivia calling to tell him about Reston is too much. As he is heading back to the Oval Office where Reston is meeting with Fitz he drops to the ground. He is having a heart attack.
Meanwhile in the Oval Office Reston wastes no time, if Fitz puts Reston on his ticket then this all goes away. Defiance will never come out. Fitz doesn’t so much as blink and Reston leaves to await Fitz’s decision.

Olivia rushes over to the White House at the same time Cyrus is calling Fitz from the ambulance. Seriously, Cyrus is a lot of things but he is a damn good Chief of Staff. The EMT’s finally have enough and take his phone away from him.
Having heard the news James rushes to the hospital, “Don’t you die on me when I’m so mad at you.” There is nothing like near-death experiences to bring people together. James starts to cry and says he doesn’t forgive Cyrus. Cyrus says he doesn’t forgive James either but they embrace anyway.

On the phone with the office Olivia and the Gladiators decide Reston doesn’t actually have the Cytron card, Billy must still have it. It is his leverage. At that moment we see Rosen and Billy meeting. Billy is telling Rosen he needs the Cytron card – a card Rosen is reluctant to hand over. It is Rosen’s leverage as well. Rosen quite easily gets Billy to admit to killing that CIA guy, that Wendy girl – oh sorry for framing you by the way – and Molly. Billy turns it around reminding Rosen if it wasn’t for Olivia and his so called friends he wouldn’t be in this predicament in the first place. Rosen pulls the Cytron card out of his pocket and hands it over.

At the hospital Olivia and Fitz are in Cyrus’s room. Olivia has a plan. She wants Fitz to pretend to agree to put Reston on the ticket. She figures when Fitz demands to see the Cytron card in exchange for being put on the ticket, Reston will have to call Billy to get it and that is how they will get to Billy. She really is at her best when she is under pressure.

Mellie is at her house watching the news. It looks like maybe the public is turning on her, for airing her dirty laundry for the world to see. She grabs some flowers and heads over to the hospital where Fitz is still sitting with Cyrus. Mellie of course managed to alert the press to where she is and she thinks it would be best if she and Fitz left together in the elevator. You know, to show a united front. Fitz however is still strong in his resolve that they are over. I’ve never seen Mellie looks so put out while Fitz explains his plan. They are getting divorced and when she launches her own political career, he will back her and campaign for her and say lovely things about her. Then about a year into his second term – he is really sure he is going to win – he will go on a few very public dates. Six months after that it will get leaked that he has been spending time with one of his oldest friends and former advisors, a friendship that is no longer strictly professional. When America embraces Olivia – and they will – Mellie does not want to be on the wrong side of history. Of course if Mellie feels the need to leak her name now or sabotage his plan in any way he will leak that Mellie is a racist and that will be the end of her in any public forum.
It’s a hell of a speech and seriously the longest one I’ve heard a character make uninterrupted in a long time. It’s impressive. Mellie has nothing to say and she silently storms out. Cyrus assumes Olivia came up with that plan and he is impressed but also worried, he is supposed to be getting in the way of their relationship.

Pope and Associates are still at the office waiting on Reston to make his call to Billy. Abbey is in Olivia’s office working out how someone got into the safe. She doesn’t know how Charlie could have cracked the code so quickly while holding Rosen hostage. Huck hollers that Reston is making the call – they got him.

At home that night Olivia is sitting down with a glass of wine while she talks to Fitz. She hangs up and her door knob starts to rattle. She jumps up and locks the dead bolt, something I find ridiculous. Who is single, has as many work related issues as Olivia does and doesn’t lock the deadbolt the moment she is in her home??? Anyway, she is about to call 9-1-1 when someone grabs her from behind and covers her mouth. Thankfully for her it is only Jake and he shhhh’s her. As soon as the door bursts open Jake raises his gun and shoots the intruder. It is the girl who helped him try to grab Charlie at the bakery. He shot another one of his team – for Olivia.

At Billy’s house Huck and Quinn have searched everywhere and can’t find the Cytron card. Quinn is nervous and full of nervous energy. She is driving a very calm collected Huck a little crazy. She finally sits down and that is when Billy shows up. He sees them and takes off. Huck gives Quinn a look and she sits back down and waits while he goes after Billy. Probably best since she is in a pencil skirt and heals. Who goes on a ransacking mission in a skirt and heals?

Jake gets Olivia back to Pope and Associates where he pulls her into her office and pours her a drink. He needs a minute to think about what just happened before he figures out what to do next. He makes her promise to stay in her office tonight and goes to leave. When asked why someone is trying to kill her he says he doesn’t know the details. What he does know is as long as she is in a relationship with Fitz she is in danger. Jake tells her he is part of B613 ad since she knows exactly what that is she seems to realize just how seriously her life is in danger. She doesn’t want him to leave; they will kill him for saving her and disobeying orders. He tells her not to worry about him. As for her, either she fixes her door and hires security or she breaks up with her boyfriend. Either way, he has to leave and now. Olivia thanks him for saving her life and calls him one of the good guys. He is uncomfortable with that “title” though and admits to Olivia that sleeping with her was his mission. With tears in her eyes she tells him to close his eyes, which he does. She reaches up and kisses him goodbye.

Cyrus shows up at Pope and Associates. When she didn’t answer he sent Secret Service over to her apartment. They saw the broken door and he checked himself out of the hospital to find her. She asks Cyrus if he has ever heard of B613, he makes some mumbling comments about classified and not at liberty to say. Olivia says it doesn’t really matter; she is going to be with Fitz, no matter what. She loves him. Cyrus can’t believe that is the take away she got from having her life almost ended. He rants and she calls him dramatic. She wants dramatic oh he will give her a fast talking in her face I’m the man and I know best dramatic speech. A speech that ends with the revelation that Fitz killed Verna. That sure makes Olivia pause and seems to get Cyrus’s point across.

Still at Billy’s house Huck and Baby Huck have Billy naked and duct taped. Huck has out his drill and he wants answers about the Cytron card. At the last moment Huck can’t put the drill into Billy, he is shaking. Baby Huck says it is okay, he doesn’t have to do it. Do you want to know why, because she is going to do it. She takes the drill from Huck and without so much as a pause sticks it right into Billy. Blood splattered all over her face and a concerned Huck looking on as a gleeful Baby Huck says she isn’t going to ask where the Cytron card is twice.
Once she has the information she calls Abbey who goes to pick up the card from its hiding place. Abbey gets it back to the office and plugs it into Huck’s computer. There is nothing on the card, it is a fake. Before Baby Huck can do anymore damage Billy yells, “That is the card he gave me. That is the card David Rosen gave me.”

Abbey can’t believe David played them. She goes to his apartment and starts looking through his things for the Cytron card. What she finds are all of the combinations Rosen tried on Olivia’s safe until he found the right one. We also see Rosen making a fake Cytron card to give to Billy. Abbey looks some more and finds a box labeled, “For Olivia”.

At the White House Cyrus burst in on a relaxing Fitz. Fitz is shocked to see him but what he is more shocked to see is the tape of Jake and Olivia having sex. A tape Cyrus plays for him. Fitz watches the sex tape with a sad/shocked look on his face. I’d like to pull out a Friends reference here and remind Fitz they were on a break, one that he imposed.

Later we have another secret Defiance meeting with Mellie, Fitz, Cyrus, Hollis and Olivia except now everyone is very uneasy with each other, more so than usual. Hollis of course wants to take Rosen out. Cyrus’s phone beeps and he gets a message that Rosen is in Cyrus’s office right now. Cyrus heads up to talk to Rosen. He has the Cytron card which he hands over to Cyrus. All he asks in return is recognition and a job.

Olivia is in her office opening the “For Olivia” package from Rosen. It is Billy Chambers’s confession. Rosen was wearing a wire. In the box along with the confession is a white hat, she smiles and puts it on.
While she is doing that, Fitz holds a press conference touting Rosen as the man who found the mole and the man who brought the CIA Directors true killer to justice. For that Fitz appoints him US District Attorney.

A few days later Olivia goes to see Fitz. His first words to her are, “You and Jake.” She says Cyrus told her about Verna. He was going to “forgive” her the Jake affair but he figures she can’t forgive murder. Fitz really wants another chance but it doesn’t look like she is going to give him one. In fact she says he needs to start over and run for his second term with Mellie by his side. What she needs to do is be there for her Gladiators. She pushed them too far through all of this and they need her.

Awhile later we see Fitz kneel before Mellie and cry with his head on her lap, Jake get thrown in the pit where Huck lost his mind while Rowan looks down at him, Cyrus destroys the Cytron card and Olivia, dressed in white, is about to go for a jog. She gets outside to find a wall of reporters all asking her if she is the Presidents mistress. She gets pulled by men in suits into the back of a car. Rowan is there and Olivia looks up and says, “Dad?” Something I did not see coming.

Since this was the season finale I have a few things to say. Quinn is frightening and not in a good or fun way – in a you turned that sweet girl from the Midwest into a killer sort of way. I do not like it. You know what else I don’t like – Fitz and Olivia not being together for more than an episode. I am okay with the back and forth, that’s part of the ride but they need to be together for more than an episode if they are going to be apart for a year. It’s more of a bad amusement park ride back and forth and again, not to repeat myself, but not a fun one.

That being said I’m glad they wrapped the Cytron debacle up and I’m glad Rosen got the good job even if he want about it in a shady roundabout way.

My last comment – how is it no one knows Rowan is Olivia’s dad. And am I the only one that thinks it is creepy that her father made it his boy’s mission to do his daughter? That doesn’t seem right, along with the fact that it seems like he also tried to have her killed.

I guess we have four or so months to think about the answers while we wait for Shonda Rhimes to screw with us again.

Scandal will be back this fall with brand new episodes on ABC